334' RESUMPTION OF THE JOURNEY. 



hopes of Mosioatunya's abilities as a nursery-man. My 

 only source of fear is the hippopotami, whose footprints 1 

 saw on the island. When the garden was prepared, I cut 

 my initials on a tree, and the date 1855. This was the only 

 instance in which I indulged in this piece of vanity. The 

 garden stands in front, and, were there no hippopotami, I 

 have no doubt but this will be the parent of all the gardens 

 which may yet be in this new country. We then went up 

 to Kalai again. 



2Qth November. — Sekeletu and his large party having 

 conveyed me thus far, and furnished me with a company 

 of one hundred and fourteen men to carry the tusks to the 

 coast, we bade adieu to the Makololo and proceeded north- 

 ward to the Lekone. The country around is very beautiful, 

 and was once well peopled with Batoka, who possessed 

 enormous herds of cattle. When Sebituane came in former 

 times, with his small but warlike party of Makololo, to 

 this spot, a general rising took place of the Batoka through 

 the whole country, in order to "eat him up;" but his usual 

 success followed him, and, dispersing them, the Makololo 

 obtained so many cattle that they could not take any note 

 of the herds of sheep and goats. The tsetse has been 

 brought by buffaloes into some districts where formerly 

 cattle abounded. This obliged us to travel the first few 

 stages by night. We could not well detect the nature of 

 the country in the dim moonlight: the path, however, 

 seemed to lead along the high bank of what may have 

 been the ancient bed of the Zambesi before the fissure was 

 made. The Lekone now winds in it in an opposite direc- 

 tion to that in which the ancient river must have flowed. 



24£/i. — We remained a day at tlfe village of Moyara. 

 Here the valley in which the Lekone flows trends away to 

 the eastward, while our course is more to the northeast. 

 The country is rocky and rough, the soil being red sand, 

 which is covered with beautiful green trees, yielding abun- 

 dance of wild fruits. The father of Moyara was a powerful 

 chief; but the son now sits among tbe ruins of the town, 



